Quartzite, Az.

Quartzite, Az.

Pumping gas in an old gas station.

Quartzite, Az.

Pumping gas in an old gas station.

Quartzite, Az.

Pumping gas in an old gas station.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Labor Day WeekendSaturday

The bags were packed and ready to go the night before, we really wanted to make sure we left Phoenix at a good time so that with a little luck we could make it to West Covina unload the bags and the kids and then go meet my sister at Casa Cabral for some good ol' karaoke. All things considered, four adults, three kids and five hours of driving the trip was mostly uneventful. Except! The one little incident due to a certain hitchhiker (someone we knew) that kindda put a dent into our otherwise good trip. Thanks to this "dent" we did not make Casa Cabral or Rambo's Tacos on time. Urggggg!

Anyway Saturday we all got up, mi chica had decided on going to "The Alleys". No we were not going to rummage through random alleys, The Garment District is a heaven for women as they find all kinds of stores and the prices are ridiculously low and most people just knows them as "the alleys". So we load up the van with the kids while my son in law, my daughter and two nieces drive in a second car.

Notice the amount of people walking around, these are not the actual streets but the alleys and you find all kind of characters walking around. See Diego posing with a newborn puppy, and a trio of manequins showing the new clothes. I'm telling you, never a dull moment here.

My first job in Los Angeles was delivering "pellon" to every garment manufacturing company in L.A. This was back in the very late 70's and early 80's so I knew every alley in the City of Los Angeles. Back then it was concentrated on a small section, what I didn't realized is that the vendors have expanded almost all the way from First Street all the way to the Santa Monica freeway. That my friends is a huge area.

Can't get any more alley than this. Right by the white trash can where the van is parked was the underground parking lot. Here junior looks as if saying, "OK, so here we are in the alleys and I see not accion, and no vendors."

We found a parking garage that only charged $5.00 to park, so that was not too bad. We started walking through what seemed like a sea of people. I had no idea how many people goes there to shop, I am talking thousands of people. Vendors try hard to compete and attract your business. It is totally, totally crazy and absolutely fun.

Who goes to the alleys, you may ask? Well, anybody and everybody. If you are into people gazing, you will see the most varied array of people there, all together and in good harmony.

Shop, shop, and shop some more was the them of the day. From watches, to perfumes, to shoes, to clothes, to toys, to food. You find it all there.

The weather was a little hot and a little humid but overall not too bad. We easily spent two or three hours there and then we decided we have had enough. Unfortunately we had three little kids that lose interest in what's going on very quick. We got on our cars and mi chica suggested that since we were so close to my old stumping grounds we should drive by where I used to live. My old house was only about five minutes away so that sounded like a great idea, but I will tell you more about that in another post.

Not a sit down restaurant, but a shack. They do have about fifteen stools to sit and eat there, but don't count on finding them empty.

At this point we were hungry and we decided to go buy some shrimp cocktails. There is a place right on the corner of Washington and San Pedro St., that has been there for the past 35 years, it's a very successful sea food place and it's only a shack. They are always busy and people go there from far away to eat the cocktails they prepare. Needless to say they were most excellent.

ATTACK!

After that little detour we headed back towards West Covina but since we were on a "let's tour the old neighbourhoods mode" we headed towards Hacienda Height so that my daugher could see the housed we owned there before we moved to Phoenix (again more on this later).

We called my sister in La Puente and we stopped to visit her. Then mi chica and the kids kept going to West Covina while I stayed at my sister's. We sang some karaoke and later when mi chica was back we got into the jacuzzi for a very relaxing afternoon, then pizza, and then more karaoke. At around 11:00 p.m. we called it a night and went back to West Covina to rest.

The next day we would be going to Venice Beach so we needed to be rested.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

ROAD TRIP

It's funny that this billboard went up this week by my work. If you pay attention to the image it shows beer, ummmmm! beer, not that I am a drinker but heck we are about to have a long weekend and the weather invites to have one, or two, or three. the second thing that caught my eye in this scene is the beach (OK, it's official. I cannot pronounce this word and it sounds like I say something else and it joins the list mi chica made of words I should not say). But the beauty of it is that I have been banned from saying it but not from writing it. So the plan is to go to the BEACH. But the most important part of the billboard add that really caught my eye was the name of the hut restaurant, "TACOS". Either that was the name or the menu, I am not certain but either way if I hear the word tacos you know I'm there.

We love to take road trips, if it wasn't because gasoline is so expensive these days we would probably take more. I hope this one is not too bad, it will be Arielle's second trip to California, the first one in May she was only like two months old but this time she is half a year old and we have no idea how she is going to take the 4-hour trip. I am hoping she sleeps all the way but I don't think we'll be that lucky. Then again she may surprise us.

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By now many of you know I am a Ford guy. I how I would love to be taking this road trip on one of this. And I thought the GT40 was hot. This baby burns!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

ChrisJ did it again. She took one of my images and turned it into another great mini painting. This occasion she drew an image I captured while in Santa Maria, Guerrero Mexico. The view is from the kitchen looking out to the porch. We were visiting my godfather and his family. My godfather whom also happens to be my mom's brother lives in the house my grandpa built many years ago. My mom along with the whole family helped my grandfather erect the house which is entirely made of adobe. I had not been there in 40 years so I was pretty amazed that the house was still the same as I remembered it.

These are the tree paintings Chris has done from my pictures, I hope she continues to find inspiration and images worthy of her time from my files.

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So, the plan is to get away from Phoenix if only for the weekend so... we are traveling to beautiful Southern California on Friday to go visit friends and family. We plan on leaving as soon as we get out from work to make it early enough to have our beloved and very tasty Rambo's Tacos (or sopes in Michelle's case) as soon as we get to West Covina. We figure we should be there a little before midnight if not earlier.

Every time we go to California we have a party to attend to so the itinerary is always closed, but this time we just want to go for the fun of it. Maybe we'll hit the beach, I know mi chica definitely wants to go to The Garment District in Los Angeles and walk the alleys, I will probably visit the local Harley Davidson dealership to see what's new. It's good to go with an open agenda and just fill it in as we go. It should be lots of fun and I'll share with you some of the highlights when we come back.

I know I'll find many photo ops to share with you. I don't know if I'll have access to a computer while in LA so I may or may not update but for sure we'll be back in Phoenix on Monday.

I borrowed this picture from the Internet but our final destination in West Covina is only five minutes away from here.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Brianna turned 7, wow how did that happen. She was just born and now in a blink of an eye she is seven. Her birthday was on Friday the 22nd and this year for the first time she had her own birthday celebration. On prior years it had been combined with her sister's birthday which falls sometime in October so normally mid September was the happy medium for their party. I am glad that now that they are older they each get to have a celebration for their birthday.

Juan Diego Jr's birthday was the following day, wouldn't you believe he is 1-year old already. Now his party will take place in about three weeks.

So, back to Brianna. My son and his wife invited us to a swimming party at their house, except everyone forgot to let me know it was a swimming party so I didn't take any swimming trucks. My son and nephew volunteer to let me use some of theirs, which I immediately agreed but my son is a 3X while my nephew is a 2X, I opted for the smaller of the two but two of me fit in any of them. I pulled on the string as hard as I could until I chocked my stomach and for the most part did OK, but some of the dives I performed were kindda trying to pull the trucks out. What an ugly show that would have been. No worries, the trunks stayed in place and I survived just fine and managed to have lots of fun in the process.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

I was just thinking how much I miss singing on Bix and SinsSnap but our computers are not cooperating lately. My son in law finally fixed our desktop computer and at least we can now post and keep up with our blogs from home. My computer is at work as our IT tech is taking a look at it but he told me the other day that it's pretty much dead.

So anyway I decided to open up my SingSnap account and I started listening to some of the songs I recorded over the past year, I actually sang over two hundred songs believe it or not so today I am going to post at least three. Click on them or not is up to you, I'm singing anyway. lol mi, mi, mi.

This first song I think it's pretty cool because my friend Terrie recorded it for a duet and invited anyone that wanted to sing with her to record the rest. Of course I took her up on the invitation and it amazes me that she is in Florida while I am in Arizona and yet we were able to pull this duet off. Terrie, it was an honor to sing this song with you and thanks for the invite.

Mi chica and I have been through ups and downs and everything in between and yet we are still here and we are still dancing, I recorded this for her and so I'll post it again because I want you all to know that through thick and thin she is the love of my life... She is my lady. ~ Love ya baby!

OK so I got inspired by the previous song so I will post this last song for the one, the only my "tu o ninguna", my lovely chica. I have been a fan of Luis Miguel for years and I truly think he is indeed one of the if not the best crooner that Latin America has. Consider him our Luther Vandross. I just hope I did him some justice.

So there you have it, call this my Sunday mini concert, it was totally free of admission and if you were sitting in front of your computer you even had front row seats. However, if you brought rotten tomatoes to throw at me I hope they were confiscated in the lobby.

Out of my seven grand kids Diego is the only one that is bilingual. He asks us how to say certain things in Spanish and he actually learns them. When saying good bye to my mom he always says "Adios, abuelita" and "Te quiero mucho".

So. the my daughter's phone rings and what do you know, her ringer starts singing "I kissed a girl and I liked it". The phone goes into missed call and Diego starts singing. "I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chopstick." I start laughing and Michelle comes in, I tell her, are you hearing what your son is singing, and she says, yeah and it sounds better coming out of his mouth. I'm telling you, these kids pick everything so fast.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

As I mentioned before, in Cuernavaca I was given a room with a bathroom and shower so on Friday Morning the first thing I did was take a shower. I had not taken a shower in the past 13 days so I think I over indulge in staying under the shower. I heard noises in the kitchen so I decided to go down and find out what was going on.

To my surprise the table was set with a succulent breakfast. Orange juice, strawberry yogurt, sweet Mexican bread, coffee, bacon, fried eggs, and the list goes on and on. One by one everybody must have smelled the coffee because in no time that table was full of people. Louie and his whole family made sure we had a good time.

The plan for the day was to take us to The Borda Gardens. You may remember that Jose de la Borda was a very rich man that had a big influence in Taxco and apparently in Cuernavaca too. The gardens are a paradise for plant lovers, they are beautifully kept and you can easy spend a couple of hours there walking around over and under the bridges, it's a serene and relaxing place that once was home to the emperor Maximiliano and his wife Carlota.

For a better view click on the images to enlarge, you'll discover how much detail is in those gardens.

Across Morelos Street from the cathedral lies the Jardín Borda (Borda Gardens). José de la Borda, the Taxco silver magnate, ordered a sumptuous vacation house built here in the late 1700s. When he died in 1778, his son Manuel inherited the land and transformed it into a botanical garden. The large enclosed garden next to the house was a huge private park, laid out in Andalusian style, with kiosks and an artificial pond. Maximilian took it over as his private summer house in 1865. He and Empress Carlota entertained lavishly in the gardens and held frequent concerts by the lake.

The gardens were completely restored and reopened in 1987 as the Jardín Borda Centro de Artes. In the gateway buildings, several galleries hold changing exhibits and large paintings showing scenes from the life of Maximilian and from the history of the Borda Gardens. One portrays the initial meeting between Maximilian and La India Bonita, a local maiden who became his lover.

A note to Wanda and Chris, if I spent a couple of hours there you two would easily spend double that time.

After that we took a tour of the city, it takes a long time to travel a small distance because the traffic there is the worst. The streets are small and very narrow and the population keeps growing by the day. It was interesting to see the different areas. Louie took us to some of the nicer neighborhoods where very rich Americans such as Mohamed Ali have homes there. Cuernavaca is also a mecca for over the hill Mexican actors, and retired citizens.

As you can see, I am not kiddin' when I say the streets are narrow, I got this one at one of those rare moments where there was not traffic.

He took us to a church that is a the top of a hill where you can have a 180 degree view of the city.

We, got home and I was pretty tired. Remember that up to this point it has been non stop since we left Phoenix on May 26. Again, another delicious dinner was cooked for us, this time it was something simple and yet it was one of the best meals. He cooked chilaquiles con chile. We were supposed to go out to a karaoke bar later that night but I plain chickened out as I was tired and we opted for staying in and using their karaoke at home. It was a small set up with an OK sound but we didn't care, we stayed singing until we had no more voice left. We had a total good time and then we retired for the night.

We were told that the next morning we were to have breakfast at this charming restaurant that served a pretty good buffet. So, we only had a few hours to go to sleep. All in all we had another great day.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

And now, it is my honor to award the "Joe Cool" gold medal for uneven bars to a great athlete and competitor.

Nastia Liukin

To say many competitors, not just Americans were scored very badly in women's gymnastics is an understatement. I don't have to be a professional to see that, and I also know that many may not agree with me. But I know what I like and I give credit where credit is due.

Monday, August 18, 2008

We had a pretty nice weekend. We did attend my niece's birthday party at a nice park in Goodyear. We like this part because it has a fun water playground that the kids love to get soaked in. With our temperatures still over the 100 degree mark it's a nice place to be at, however most of us grown ups there don't get soaked which means that we are going to suffer for an hour or two until we leave and enter the air conditioned car and eventually the house.

So, here is the debate and I am hoping you people out there can clarify and or shade some light on the following issue.

When you are invited to a party, regardless of what kind of party (kids, birthday, baby shower, bridal shower, etc.)what is the protocol for leaving. Do you attend, say hi, turn in your present, and then leave and it's OK, and your duty as invitee is fulfilled?

Or do you attend and set yourself a minimum amount of time that you will be there, provided the party is boring, or you are just too tired because you worked earlier, and are not in the mood for parties.

Is there any party etiquette on this issue? Is it rude to leave to soon or too fast? Or, is your responsibility fulfilled because you attended even if for a short amount of time.

Just one of those things that make me go hummmmm!

So, our house is usually noisy during the weekends, our grand kids make sure of that, but yesterday they were out and the house was pretty quiet. Mi chica and I and Diego spent a lazy afternoon together and fell asleep. I would have been fine and dandy except we were having a cafesito in honor of my mom's birthday which was on Saturday. By the time we woke up and we got the text messages and voice mails it was too late for us to go. Now that was not good at all. We didn't mean to forget but quiet days in our household are few and far.

Diego decided to take his floaties off two weeks ago because he wanted to learn how to swim without them. I am happy to inform you that he is now a fish. It's amazing how fast he has picked up some skills. Kids, they never seize to amaze me.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Again, one more weekend is upon us. We have been invited to more fiestas than we can attend. A baby shower, a 2-year old niece's celebration, my mom's birthday. Yeap, party time and good food sounds good to me. Talking about food, I want you to know that as I write this I am enjoying a pair of home made mole rojo burritos. Yeah, my mom hooks me up with the home made lunch at least three days of the week. I don't see myself losing weight anytime soon.

Hey, I have to send a big shout out to the new sweethearts of gymnastics. In a sport of deductions, these two were getting deductions for being great, while the Chinese girls kept getting good scores even though their routines were full of balance checks. Go figure! But in the end both Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and the silver in that order. For some reason the judges found excuses to make them wait for excessive long periods of time before they were given the green light start their routines. I kept watching these two girls struggle to maintain their focus and concentration. In the end they prevailed but they really had to work hard to earn the two top spots.

Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the Gold and the Silver Medals.Picture borrowed from the Internet.

I couldn't help comparing these two to two of my all time gymnastics favorites. Shawn Johnson = Mary Lou Retton, and Nastia Liukin = Shannon Miller. One small and muscular, the other slender and graceful.

I've noticed a great mixture of talents in this Olympics. What I mean by mixture is this, we all know that the Romanian coach came to the US and trained our girls. A Chinese Olympian that fought so hard to have the Olympics in China is our female volley ball coach. Shawn Johnson's coach... Chinese. Our American gold medalist... Russian, Alexander Vladimirovich "Sasha" Artemev... yeap Russian, the only four female table tennis representatives, all American citizens born in China. I see this as the world coming together through sport. I am sure some of you may have a totally different view, but it is in fact a potpourri of races all competing for the USA.

Parties and more Olyimpics watching, sounds like a plan for the weekend.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Wow, another first for a grandson. Our little "ducky" started pre-school today. His mom and mi chica went to see him off and to wish him well. No crying with this one, he was in too much of a hurry to go in and start getting all academic and stuff. I requested a picture of him to be emailed to me but so far no luck.

If I close my eyes it feels like yesterday when my daughters started kindergarten, now their kids are starting. Is it just me or does everybody can close their eyes and think of twenty years ago as of yesterday but if I ask you to think twenty years ahead it feels like it's so far away.

In this picture he proudly holds his lunch in his state of the art lunch pail in the shape of a supermaket plastic bag... Designers!!! What'll be the next trend.

It's funny, I don't remember my first kindergarten day, but I do remember the school, the gardens, the mini swimming pool (more like a fountain)in the shape of a clover, and the drums we used to beat on Monday's to salute the flag and the walking from our house to the school. I do! I remember all that. However, I don't remember anything we ever did in the classroom. Nothing, zip, it's all blank. I guess that is why it's called selective memory.

5-15-24-79 That was the telephone number at my mom's store in Mexico, the last time I thought about that number must have been 42 or 43 years ago, and right now I just thought about that phone on hanging on the store wall and the number came to me like nothing. Now ask me about the last five phone numbers I had here and I can't remember any of them, including my last cell number which has been out of commission for the past two months.

Sometimes I wonder how much our kids and grand kids remember of these sort of events. After all, first school days in a kid's life rank pretty high in importance. My son's first day of school was insane. I know I have blogged about this story before but it has got to be one of the most funny and memorable days of our lives. My son literally got on the floor, hugged my leg tight and screamed and cried like there was no tomorrow. "Daddy, daddy, please don't leave me. I don't want to go to school, take me back with you. Aghrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Daddy please, if you leave me I'll die", lol he actually did say that, no exaggeration here from my part. It took 2 teachers to hold him back as they asked me to leave while assurng me that he would be OK. As far as drama kings go, my son was the real deal. That same day at around noon mi chica got a call from the kindergarten teacher to let her know that my son tried to go AWOL by climbing the 12 foot link fence.

Now when we tell him the story, which by the way we remind him every time one of the kids start school, he just laughs his ass off.

So, back to "Ducky", if my daughter forwards me a picture of him from today I'll make sure to post it.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Once, a friend of mine told me, "Just because we used machines doesn't mean we are fake friends". How true that statement was, over the two years that I have been blogging I have found some really great friends and even though I have not met not even one of you in person it doesn't make us any less real. The same applies for my other two favorite sites Bix and SingSnap.Some of you may be wondering how come I haven't posted any songs from either Bix or SingSnap and I am also sure that some of you may be saying, "Oh no, please don't bring those back!"

The truth is that both our computers at home died, yes they did. (R.I.P.) And it will be a while until we can get a new one.

Anyway, I entered one of the many singing contests over at Bix and somehow placed somewhere in the top 10. My friend Torch the creator of that contest awarded us with one of the coolest gifts that we could get and I received it in the mail this weekend. So now I can hang this on the door knob of the "studio" as I am recording. He, he, he, nifty little gadget isn't it. Thank you so much Torch for the gift, know that I will treasure it as it's better than a gift from the store.

Another such friend is ChrisJ. For the second time, Chris has taken one of my images from my Arizona But It's a Dry Heat! blog and turned it into a painting. Chris specializes in prisma colors and pen.

Please go and visit her wonderful blog and read the post entitled "Jose's Mexican Friend". You may also want to check out the other image she did of mine from her "doorways" series.

You just cannot deny she is so talented. Again, thank you ChrisJ for choosing my images to turn them into those fantastic miniature paintings.

Friday, August 08, 2008

The weekends come faster that I want them to. It's like where does time go? Seems that it just swoosh past over my head over and over again. Granted it's pretty cool to have the weekend again but really when time passes so fast that I don't feel like anything worth while was accomplished I start thinking that maybe, just maybe I am getting old too fast. Not a good feeling.

Well at least this weekend we have a fiesta to attend to. My sisters birthday won't be until the 18th but she will celebrate it with a party this Saturday as my mom's birthday is actually the following week on Saturday the 16th. And also on that same Saturday my niece is throwing a children's party as her daughter turns two years old. I'm telling you, our fiestas never end. It's almost like at the beginning of the year we just take a number and start filling the annual party agenda.

Work is very slow, it is hard to keep my staff busy and to me that is more stressful than when we are busy. The news show that more and more people are being laid off and even though the company I work for does not lay off it's staff the thought is always there that if things don't pick up that could always be a possibility.

So, my favorite show after American Idol came to an end last night. "So You Think You Can Dance" has got to be the best dancing show period. Last night Josh was crowned America's favorite dancer. Week after week they eliminate one guy and one girl so last night as they had the top four and the eliminations started I was very surprised to see the girl that many of us thought would win the whole thing place third while the top to spots were given to two guys. Things that make me go hummmm!Definitely the best season of the four but I personally was not happy that Twitch made it all the way to number two based on popularity. But then again that's what people base their votes on.

As of right now I have no shows to watch other than the Mexican soaps with mi chica. I am patiently waiting for the season premiere of Prison Brake which I believe starts pretty soon. Can't wait to see what the come up with.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Olympics start today and I will be watching some of my favorite events such as gymnastics, diving, swimming, maybe soccer and a few other favorites of mine.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Wow, as of now I will be afraid, very afraid to put my ideas out there, as it is with me ideas are few and far. But in any case once in a while I do get a few brilliant ideas, at least I like to think so and I share them with those I love.

Let me give you some examples of the great kind of ideas that I have had throughout my life:

Once upon a time I told mi chica, "You know what babe, let’s get married". Now that was the best idea I'be ever had. Then I told her "let’s have kids". That sounded like a great idea at the time. Just kiddin' it was a great idea too. I just can't see my life without my kids and now my grandkids. Then the idea light bulb parked over my head yet again and I told mi chica "Let's buy a house we can't afford" LOL -- Well that was not really a bright idea but somehow we are making it work. I love my house and my neighborhood and I am still hoping that it will be our best investment. Sooner or later we will be out of this recession and our house will appreciate to its real value.

So as you can see ideas come and ideas go, the challenge is that once we get them and adopt them we need to make them work. Don't ponder on an idea for so long that it will become a doozer.